France was on high alert Wednesday as hundreds of security forces took part in a manhunt for a gunman who killed at least two people and wounded a dozen more at a Christmas market in eastern France.
French authorities had previously said that three people were killed, but prosecutor Remy Heitz said Wednesday that two people were dead and a third was brain dead.
The attack happened in Strasbourg, which is home to the European Union’s Parliament, around 8 p.m. local time Tuesday. A terrorism investigation has been opened, but a motive for the attack remains unclear and no group has claimed responsibility.
French police identified the suspect as 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt. He is thought to be from Strasbourg and radicalized while serving time in prison for several robbery cases.
Heitz, the prosecutor, said witnesses heard the suspect shout “God is great” in Arabic during the attack.
He said the assailant, who attacked the victims with a handgun and a knife, was shot in the arm during a gunfight with soldiers before fleeing in a taxi to another part of the city. He remains at large
Laurent Nunez, secretary of state for France’s interior ministry, told France-Inter radio Wednesday that five people have been detained in connection with the attack. He said eight of the injured were seriously wounded.
Nunez said Chekatt may have fled to nearby Germany.
French media reported that prior to the attack Chekatt was being investigated over an attempted murder, and that he had been due to be arrested Tuesday morning.
Approximately 350 police officers are involved in the search for Chekatt.
France has been the victim of a number of deadly terrorist attacks since 2015. A total of 246 people have been killed in those incidents, according to AFP. The country has also been hit by a recent series of violent anti-government protests, stretching police.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said France’s security alert level has been raised to “emergency.” That means reinforced border controls and tightened security on all Christmas markets in France to avoid the risk of a copycat attack.
The Christmas market and lights in Strasbourg attract hundreds of thousands of people each year. In 2000, French and German police foiled a plot by al-Qaeda to set off a truck bomb near the Strasbourg Cathedral, next to the Christmas market.
Terrorism-related deaths around the world fell by 44 percent last year to 18,800, according to the London-based Institute of Economics & Peace, which publishes an annual Global Terrorism Index. It was the third consecutive fall for the index after it peaked at 34,000 deaths in 2014. At the same time, far-right political terrorism is on the rise in North America and Western Europe, according to the institute’s gauge.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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